


Woes of a Leading Man

by OrchideePower



Category: grant gustin - Fandom
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 21:57:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4196397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrchideePower/pseuds/OrchideePower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant Gustin is cast in a new role that does not satisfy his own inner idea of a building his career.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Woes of a Leading Man

“Mad Young Beauty.” The title should have warned me. My agent insisted this drama teen constellation of drugs and sex and badly researched mental illness would benefit my career. I needed the help. I knew I was good and I was confident in my range, but I still kept getting overlooked for serious parts. Probably my first role left a bad taste in the mouths of producers. Who knows?

But for this role, a teenage boy led by his balls by a manipulative girlfriend with a cemetery of skeletons in her closet, Marilyn White chose me. I knew her as one of the more progressive studio executives. If she had liked me, I must have managed to do something right.

“We’ve never worked together. I’d like to fix that.”

“But why not get a teenage actor to play a teenage boy?” I leaned forward. “I mean you don’t think I can really be a believable seventeen, do you?”

Marilyn sighed, tracing invisible symbols on the tablecloth. “Actually it’s kind of simple. An actual teenager probably won’t have the emotional range needed for the character. You do. You’ll be bringing that to the role, but the audience will believe they’re watching a teenager with those emotions because we’ve led them to that conclusion.”

"And what's this called again?"

“It had another original title, but we’re changing it to ‘Mad Young Beauty’?”

“Why?” I closed the script and dropped it on the table. “What was wrong with the original?”

Marilyn gave a delicate shrug. “Keenan seemed to think it was too clinical. Appropriate enough for the subject matter, but not at all sexy.”

“Sexy. I hate that word.” I turned to look out on the ocean. “You people won’t be happy until you’ve gotten me naked.”

“Speaking of which, there’s a little of that in the script. We can cross that bridge when we get there.”

Oh, I was certain. This movie wasn’t going to get investors without the promise of a love scene from me.

Morning. I’d been dreading this day and now there would be no reprieve.

My character lost his virginity to his wicked and scheming girlfriend. He’s high on his love and the new feelings racing through him. Nothing can bring him down—until his mother walks in on them.

The last thing I felt was anything like passion. I hung around the set in a t-shirt and shorts, refusing the indignity of the standard studio love scene satin robe. For the first time in my career I didn’t know how to play this. Normally I could slip into a role. I looked across the set at the makeup center where Kellie de Quinto was being plumped and prodded for what must have been the twentieth love scene she’d done for the camera. 

And all right, she was beautiful enough, with espresso hair, wide light eyes, and a complexion to match the perfect tone of her body. She did nothing for me. Nothing. It wasn’t her fault. There are some people even in show business where chemistry simply doesn’t exist.


End file.
